carolina 59. indiana's pro team taking on kobe bryant and the lakers. despite battling the flu the superstar scored 40 points including that long-range basket tying the squor 25 seconds left in the game. indiana would get the last shot. george hill drives and nobody stops him. the pacers win, 79-77. this video is angering some fans. he asked for peyton manning's autograph right after they beat the chiefs. in charles' defense he played hard in the game rushing for more than 100 yards and it is not unusual for sports stars to exchange autographs or even jerseys. he wanted manning's autograph for his mom. so maybe we'll excuse him but then again i'm not a chiefs fan. that is a look at sports this morning. thank you for joining me. cnn newsroom continues right now. thank you very much, carol. hi everybody. i'm ashleigh banfield.

11:00 on the east coast, and we'll take you on a journey here through dreams versus reality. the dream is unimaginable, life-changing wealth instantly. and the reality is that it's probably not going to happen. when you wake up tomorrow, you will be facing like everybody else the fiscal cliff. you can have your dessert in a second but first here is your main course. ready? remember this guy? i know you do. it's only been three weeks since he came in second in a bitterly fought hugely expensive national election. dan lothian is at the white house right now where that man is about to meet the man who did win the election, the president, and this is of course, dan, not exactly how mitt romney was hoping to walk through the doors of the white house, is it? >> reporter: no, not at all. i mean, i think he would have loved to have had it be the other way around where he is the president inviting former president obama to come here. no, the two will be sitting down here at the white house tomorrow

having a private lunch in the private dining room. there will be no press coverage but we hope that perhaps there will abphoto. remember back on election night the president talked about looking forward to sitting down with governor romney to talk about ways to move the country forward. this after a very tough campaign where either during the debates or out there on the campaign trail each of the candidates have had very strong words about each other's vision for the country. the president was asked about when he would be meeting with mitt romney during his news conference following the election. he said that he looked forward to sitting down and meeting with him, said there are some good ideas, some things of his record that he would like to talk to him about. when he was pressed on that the president said that he thought that mitt romney did a good job in turning the olympics around and he thought that could apply to the federal government to make it more efficient, to make it more customer friendly. people friendly. and so we expect that some of that will be part of the discussions when the president sits down with mitt romney here

at the white house tomorrow. i think the timing of this is also quite interesting because it's kind of a high profile showing of bipartisanship at a time when the president is trying to hammer out this fiscal challenge with republicans up on capitol hill. and private dining room, private lunch, no media allowed. not even a photo op or anything of them sitting down together at the table? >> nothing at this point. you know, there are a lot of things that happen behind closed doors such as the president meeting with the ceos today here at the white house, meeting with small business leaders yesterday at the white house as well. and we were not allowed to go inside and see that. but perhaps the white house photographer will get a shot and they'll put it out there and we'll get a chance to see them both together. >> that would be nice. i'm just looking at the list of the logos, a lot of big hitters headed that way. i look forward to hearing the president speak in probably about 32 minutes or so. we'll come back to you live as soon as that happens. thank you for that breaking news off the top. great to see those two together again in a very different tenor.

so okay. now to the fun stuff. we have heard a lot about the fiscal cliff. i mean you're probably sick of hearing that term fiscal cliff, debt ceiling, tax increases. got a lot of us worried that we're at the mercy of a feckless congress behaving more like stubborn kids than responsible lawmakers. wait. we did promise you a dream off the top of the show. imagine for a moment what it would be like if none of this fiscal cliff nonsense mattered the least bit to you. no debts. no family budgets. and a half billion dollars worth of powerball dreams. that is the jackpot, folks. the powerball jackpot. it just so happens to take millions of us buying up tickets to fatten up that jackpot to that big old size. alison kosic is at a 7-eleven in new york basically meeting a few of the wanna-be one percenters. the truth of the matter, what are the odds? >> reporter: i know. i hate to throw cold water on your whole dream statement that you gave.

yes this is all about dreams but you know the odds of winning are really low. 175 million to 1. those are your odds. you know what? i can't help but dream, too. i got a ticket here. one ticket, it could be the winning one. a lot of people lining up throughout the day here at this particular convenience store are sort of hoping that their dream comes true as well. but it's also leading many to wonder how did this jackpot get so big, a half billion dollars? guess what? there hasn't been a winner for this drawing since october 6th. what it does is it's rolled over time and time again and it's grown in size. but the thing is that the chance of this rolling over again, that chance is actually growing even more slim. there is a 5% chance it'll roll over again and so that is really creating more of the buzz and getting people out to really buy up tickets and certainly increase the jackpot even more for whoever wins. ashleigh? >> yeah. i don't like to hear that more people buy. i like the high jackpot but it takes my chanceasway of winning.

by the way, real quickly have you been seeing a lot of people walking in there buying lots of tickets, more commonly for office pools than just for their own wallets? >> reporter: you know what? for the megamillions, which i watched closely in march, i saw a lot more office pool buying. today i'm not seeing that. i'm seeing everybody for himself. i see everybody saying they're buying tickets for themselves. but they are talking about being more charitable if they win, giving their winnings to family members. oops. helping family members out. also giving to charities. so they are talking about, you know, maybe winning it themselves. >> don't tell me that was people fighting in line. don't tell me that was just two people going at it to get a better spot in line. >> nothing that interesting going on here. no, no. >> okay. did you get in on our office pool, kosic? >> reporter: no i didn't but if i win i'll share. okay? you have my word. >> i don't believe you. but thank you for being so adorable. >> reporter: i'm shocked. >> all right. stick around.

don't go anywhere. speaking of the office pools, there are a couple office pools going on behind me in fact. i know a few of those folks are in on one. i can also tell you these are my two office pools. you know what? can you see the highlighted portion? the highlighted portion says christine romans, soledad o'brien and ashleigh banfield. look who's here. you guys are going to do it and i didn't. i feel terrible. look, i don't think it is an investment. it's a gamble and i just want to be part of the fun. i don't think i'll win. >> you are adorable. i believe you were in on the last big office pool as well. >> i appointed myself the money manager if something happened and we didn't get it. >> this time too? >> absolutely. >> when we win. >> i'll take an extra 2% of your winnings to be the manager. >> there is a reason i do this. a little later in the program after you tell me how we'll invest these winnings properly so we don't end up broke nan a gutter somewhere because that happens there is a reason you need to do this and you need a photo copier to make sure you enjoy the millions and millions. >> absolutely. there are lawsuits often about

office pools. >> people get in a lot of fights about that big pile of money suddenly, you know, i put $2 under your key board. i was supposed to be in. i covered you for the money. there are lawyers that specialize in this. one is going to be on the program after you. >> awesome. >> you are about to tell us how we'll turn several million or a hundred or 200 million into a billion. >> yes. here is the thing. we all look at the lottery winnings and how i would spend the money. rich people think differently. rich people think how will i grow the money? there are a few of those lone lottery winners who immediately sit down, assemble a big financial team and set out to grow money. most people recommend you take the lump sum. a guy in 2005 did that. >> brad duke. >> a $220 million winning and he took the $80 million lump sum. he was a gold gym franchise manager, five different franchises in idaho. won all this money. he sat down, made a plan, and he set out to grow the money. wanted to be a billionaire.

so this is what he did. he put $45 million into investments, low risk like bonds, $35 million into aggressive investments like oil and gas. set up a family foundation. paid off his mortgage on his 1400 square foot house, paid off his student loans. he also indulged a little bit. i think you want to quiet people around you so they stop asking for money. went on a trip, bought a bunch of new bikes, bought a used vw jetta. >> a bunch of new bikes? $65,000? >> $65,000. gave them away. every year he gives 12 grand which is the annual gift limit to each family member before they have to pay taxes on it. >> i heard he gave his jetta to a nephew or niece and then bought an older one. so he gave a 2005 jetta to his family member then bought a -- >> people who are filthy rich, most people and who grow their money or earn their money, they do it by living 15% below their

means. that is how you grow your money. >> i want to show something really quickly. just roll that video. our colleague robin meade is so cute and funny and was doing this interview with this powerball reporter in indiana, wish-tv. jessica hayes was the reporter. roll the video so i can show our audience how it looked. here is the reporter and look at the background. there is this mascot that took her job really seriously. and started doing gangnam style while the lotto official was trying to do a serious interview. and this whole thing kept going all morning long, which leads me to the question of lotto fever. i mean, it does get people a bit giddy and they do tend to think it is all one big party. >> it is escapism. look, financial planning is not buying a lottery ticket. i feel really terrible about people who every week are spending more on lottery tickets than investing in a 401(k) or 529 college savings. but it is escapism from all good

financial doom and gloom. >> we're going to escape. >> tahiti? >> all right sister. you do the organizing. i'll find the drinks. >> i'll get the babysitters. >> plural. better. good luck tonight. >> you too. >> and the legal implications? really, really important. because your megamillions could turn into megadisaster. we'll tell you how not to in a moment.

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now's the time to take action. call unitedhealthcare today. is there breaking news that's been happening this morning? we just told you off the top of the program president obama is going to meet with his former challenger mitt romney at the white house tomorrow. that is exciting. then also there is something that is going on right now. there is a meeting right now between the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. susan rice, who has been under a lot of criticism lately for the things she said after the benghazi attack in libya. and also with the top republican in the homeland security committee, senator susan collins of maine the republican from maine. we think that meeting might break up any minute while we're in this program live and if it does i'll interrupt what i am doing or about to do hopefully to have a few words with the good senator about how the meeting went. if it was anything like yesterday, ooh, didn't go so well with the senators she met with yesterday. so forgive me if i have to

interrupt. i want to go back to the whole thing about office pools. i know a lot of you do this. you get in on these lotto winnings with your friends at work and if you actually win one of the big lotto pools with like oo other best friends at work you have what are you going to do? because one person has the ticket. right? sometimes they say oh, wait. that ticket? i bought that separately. i bought that one at home. that was from my private stash not from my pool. oh, well then can of worms. and it gets really messy. and there are actually people who deal with problems like this. in fact, jason is a new york attorney with the estate and tax planning group and has already dealt with clients who have won hundreds of millions of dollars including a $254 million lotto jackpot and then a $336 million winning in rhode island. so the lotto pool, i showed earlier, i think you were probably in the background as i was showing the lotto pool we collected here. >> that is your pool. >> i'm in two. i like to get in on as much as i can. there is a reason i photo copied

these things and a reason -- well somebody did it for me which was very friendly. the list of us at the back of i are all the tickets. there is a reason i did that. i think it is because i read an article about you. can you explain why it is so important to do this? >> absolutely. here's the thing. everybody dreams about winning the lottery but nobody actually thinks they are going to win so nobody acts as if they are handling a $500 million transaction. would you handle a $500 million transaction with a handshake or trusting a co-worker? of course you wouldn't. so although it's understandable that you don't think you'll win because the odds are so astronomical you have to treat this as if it were a real half a billion dollar transaction. what do you do? perfect. you make photo copies of all of the tickets. >> everybody gets this. >> everybody gets it. >> not just me. >> with a cover e-mail saying everybody on the e-mail is going to split this evenly if we win. that covers a few things. first you know you have the tickets there. >> you know you're on the list. you paid your two bucks. >> not somebody who was absent that day or getting a cup of coffee when they were collecting

the money who is going to say i'm always in it. what about me? these are the people who are on it. >> you're in it or you don't win it. >> right. >> what about the guy who says hey i know you're headed to the convenience store to get it. i don't have the two bucks on me. spot me the two bucks. you know i'm good for it. does he have a chance? >> he has a chance but there is going to be that e-mail and if the person who bought the ticket was smart they'd say listen i didn't get your $2. you're not in this. you know if you want in let me know and i'll buy another one and recirculate the e-mail. something like that. >> basically do the lending, do whatever you want but if you are not on this master list and you don't have a copy of the tickets attached you're out of luck. >> exactly. it also protects the person going to buy the tickets. >> my next question. i'm going to get the tickets. on this pool there's like look at this. a whole bunch -- there are multiple tickets, like 80 ticks on this. crazy. and i want to buy one for myself. so i'm going to get the one for myself and put it in my bag or my pocket. >> right. >> i know for sure i'm

protected. >> yes. >> if i have the other tickets photo copied and it's not on the copy list. >> that is how you protect yourself. >> is there anything else i need to know legally? that seems very simple for a very large transaction. >> so few people do it. there are office pools all over. >> do you have a worst case scenario of people who spent 3/4 of the jackpot just trying to litigate? >> that would be a lot of legal fees. that would be like a lawyer's dream but that is way too much. way too much money to spend on lawyers. who would do that? but yeah. litigation waiting to happen if not corrected. >> i admire what you do. i hope you don't end up making money off the next one and people do it the right way. thanks for coming in. maybe we'll see each other in another life. maybe tomorrow perhaps. back in a moment. >> thanks.

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you know to be secretary of state of the united states of america is our top diplomat and chief international fixer so to speak. you certainly do need a cool head. you need strong nerves and a lot of grace under incredible pressure. so maybe susan rice can think of her capitol hill damage control tour as practice for that job. today the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. who at this point has not

been nominated for anything else other than what she is currently doing, is meeting with two more republican senators and they are susan collins of maine and bob corker of tennessee. if you were with us yesterday you'll remember that her bid to set the record straight with senators john mccain and lindsay graham and kelly ayotte could hardly have gone worse. they were more inflamed about rice's early public comments about the benghazi, libya attack than they had been before that meeting. cnn's dana bash has been watching all of this prenomination confrontation drama and joins us now to talk about this. i know you're trying to wrangle an interview and make sure you catch the senators as they emerge from the meetings. dana, it might sound to some as though some of the critics of ambassador rice feel differently about what they're criticizing. they don't all seem to be in lock step or at least have the same complaints. >> reporter: that's true. no question that there are

different levels of issues that senators are upset about. i have to tell you the reason i'm on the phone now is because i'm waiting for a very important meeting that susan rice is having as we speak to wrap up and that is with senator susan collins. why is it important? because if she is nominated to be secretary of state and assuming that the republicans she met with yesterday stand by their desire to block her nomination, there would need to be 60 votes to approve her nomination for her to be secretary of state. in the next congress there will be 54 democrats. she would be at least five republicans to be on her side. it is hard to imagine getting those five republicans without the woman she is meeting with right now susan collins because she is one of the remaining moderates in the senate. she actually has personal ties to susan rice in that rice's family has ties connected to the state of maine. in fact, susan collins sat next

to susan rice at her nomination hearing two years ago or three years ago when she was nominated for u.s. ambassador. so this is really critical, this meeting that they're having, and she has a lot of questions and as i'm talking to you i'm getting a thumbs up she might -- she, susan collins, might be coming out momentarily. we'll be watching for that. what she says is going to be really, really critical to determine if in fact it makes sense for the white house to put her nomination in on susan rice if the president decides to do that as secretary of state. >> senator collins as you mentioned is a moderate. she certainly hasn't been as critical certainly as three other senators yesterday. senator ayotte and sflor mccain and senator graham have been about ambassador rice. she hasn't been that critical up until now. but those meetings are not over. when she emerges, when ambassador rice emerges from this meeting --

>> reporter: ashleigh i'm going to interrupt you because senator collins is here right now. >> terrific. if you could grab her for us that would be terrific. we'll find out the tenor. let's listen. >> i've just cudedn hour and 15 minutes with ambassador t remain unanswered. i continue to be troubled by the fact that the u.n. ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign by agreeing to go on the sunday shows to present the administration's position. in addition, it is interesting to me that ambassador rice emphasized in her presentation not that this was a terrorist

attack by al qaeda affiliates but, rather, that it had begun with a protest that we nownow was nonexistent and that it was linked to a video, which we also know is not accurate. at the time ambassador rice made these assertions, there was conflicting evidence it is true but we had the president of libya saying that 50 people had been a resident, that people, terrorists from other countries had come to libya, and that the attack was premeditated and planned. i asked ambassador rice why she did not qualify her comments more in light of this

contradictory reporting from the president of the country. her answer was that she relied on our intelligence analysis. i don't understand why she would not have at least qualified her response to that question. i'm also very troubled by the fact that we seem not to have learned from the 1998 bombings of two of our embassies in africa at the time when ambassador rice was the assistant secretary for african affairs. those bombings in 1998 resulted in the loss of life of 12 americans as well as many other foreign nationals and 4,000 people were injured.

what troubles me so much is the benghazi attack in many ways echoes the attacks on those embassies in 1998 when susan rice was head of the african region for our state department. in both cases the ambassador begged for additional security. the ambassador to kenya sent repeated messages to the state department requesting a stronger facility because of the increased threat. and those requests as in the case of benghazi were turned down by the state department. i asked ambassador rice what her role was. she said that she would have to refresh her memory but that she was not involved directly in

turning down the request but surely given her position as assistant secretary for african affairs, she had to be aware of the general threat assessment and of the ambassador's repeated requests for more security. ambassador rice said near the beginning of our session that she felt the real issue here was the protection of our people and our facilities. and i agree. that's why her actions and whether lessons were learned from the 1998 attacks on our embassies in africa are important questions and i have asked for additional information there.

another erie echo is this administration pointed out repeatedly there was not a specific warning of a specific attack on benghazi. instead, there was just an increased level of the threat in the region. once again, in 1998, when you read the accountability review board report, they say that washington and headquarters under estimated the threat to our people in africa. so these are issues that i believe deserve further investigation and remain troubling to me. >> at this point in time if president obama were to nominate susan rice to be the next secretary state could you support that nomination? >> i would need to have additional information before i could support her nomination. she's not been posted yet.

our homeland security committee investigation is ongoing. there are many different players in this and there's much yet to be learned. so i think it would be premature for me to reach that judgment now. >> your chairman came out, joe lieberman, and said obviously he won't get a vote because he is retiring. he asked the same questions, presumably got the same answers, and said he thinks she is -- >> we i didn't sit in on his briefing so i don't know that the exchanges were the same. >> would you go as far as some of your colleagues and place a hold on her nomination? [ question inaudible ] >> i think john kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues. >> senator -- >> thank you.

>> she'll be back this afternoon to answer other questions but has a meeting. >> all right. so that was great timing on behalf of our dana bash, getting those -- that lineup right away of senator susan collins, republican of maine, who is the top republican on the homeland security committee. and her comments were clear, in fact crystal clear. one thing she brought up that was very significant and somewhat different from what we've heard in terms of criticisms from other republican senators has been that she was very troubled over the 1998 series of embassey bombings in africa. why did she bring that up? because at the time ambassador rice was holding the position of assistant secretary for african affairs and also at that time where 12 u.s. citizens were killed and thousands of other people injured in those bombings the benghazi attacks seemed very similar in terms of the requests for additional security. in those embassey bombings in 1998 there were several requests for additional security that were denied and that of course in the case of benghazi there were requests for security that

were declined as well or at least were assauged in some way. dana bash, qualify for us the significance of the comments from susan rice and whether you thought she would be as strident or maybe this isn't strident. whether you thought this was exactly what you expected to hear. >> reporter: you and i were talking about just moments before susan collins came out she is the very, very important player for several reasons but the primary one is she is one of the remaining moderate republicans in the senate. the fact that she came out and said she is still in her words troubled by a number of questions that she had that didn't get answered or fully answered is significant. there is no question about it. she didn't go as far as the fiercest critics like senators graham and ayotte saying she would actually block the nomination meaning she would support a filibuster but she didn't say she is ready to support her nomination yet.

she has little room because susan rice has not been nominated officially. these are important, important political dances going on right now because they're signals to the white house about how big a fight it would be if ms. rice were nominated and the fact that susan collins one of the chief potential republican votes that the white house would need to approve her nomination, the fact susan collins said she is not sure is not a good sign for the white house and the fact she also in response to another reporter's question said she thought john kerry who was one of the senators in the club here who has been very public about wanting the job, would sail through is another interesting wrinkle in the drama going on. >> i heard your followup question as well which was intriguing that the chairman of her committee joe lieberman the independent who has been seemingly very moderate on this has emerged to say susan rice

would be a terrific candidate. i'm not sure if those were his words but essentially a great candidate. qualify her reactions and characterize whether you expected that reaction from senator collins. >> reporter: it's interesting because the point i was trying to make is that the two of them, there is almost no partisanship between the democrat and republican who are on that committee joe lieberman and susan collins. they pretty much go after things in a joint way. it's the way they operate, where they are in the political spectrum and the nature of their committee on homeland security. why is it significant? democrats have been saying that senators mccain, graham, and ayotte who have been very aggressive in going after susan rice have been doing it for political reasons. the senate majority leader harry reid put out a statement yesterday saying guys the election is over. enough already. that is the other reason why susan collins is significant. she is not known as someone who would go after people particularly someone who has the

potenti potential -- that is why what she said is important because it is difficult to say susan collins is doing this for political reasons. >> great questions live on the spot and also great reporting. thank you for that. yes, secretary of state is currently hillary clinton but mrs. clinton has said she does plan to step down as soon as her successor is lined up. ♪ thanks. [ daughter ] dad... meet julian jones, the third. [ male announcer ] some connections are generational; hi... [ male announcer ] others just a few minutes... look everybody, my new grandson. [ male announcer ] either way, our signal is strong and deeply rooted in the community. cute kid... looks nothing like you. [ male announcer ] the simple joy of staying in touch.

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so this next story could be straight out of the pages of a gripping, terrifying spy novel. you got a bioweapons scientist and covert cia officer who is working on developing all sorts of biological weapons that are used in extreme interrogations. some of those interrogations with the bioweapons result in death. and the cia, what does it do about this? the agent who is involved and apparently who has a discomfort

with what he's been doing gets his drinks spiked

against the cia. it is an extremely convoluted, intriguing case and as you well outlined but is extremely

convoluted. it's ten years old, the kennedy assassination and many if not a all -- >> that is my next question. since it is so old, a number of witnesses they would need, some of his fellow officers now in their 20s or 30s would be in their 70s or 80s. not only could they be dead but their minds are certainly not what they used to be which is always a problem in an old case that comes to court after decades. but in this particular case, just getting evidence, you're talking about getting evidence from the cia. >> well the family is having an extremely difficult time getting evidence from the cia. i spent nearly 12 years researching the case and writing the book and gathered a tremendous amount of evidence and interviewed a number of the key people who had -- who would be extremely valuable in court

today. unfortunately, those people, all of those people have died in the last three or four years. >> so what is critical here is that the death of the cia operative was ruled a suicide and it was said he jumped out of a window while on a visit to new york to see a psychiatrist because apparently his colleagues told his family they thought he was going a little loopy. the lsd that had been administered to his drink had been done days and days prior so how is it that the government made the connection between he jumped out of a window on lsd to the fact it was days and days before hand he had taken the drug? clearly it had worn off. >> that's where the case becomes extremely convoluted and you have to jump back and forth in time. nobody knew that this officer was with lsd until 1975. this incident happened in 1953. in 1953 from the moment it happened the cia presented it strictly as a suicide.

and said that frank olsen had psychological problems and had gone to new york to seek psychiatric treatment and one night at 2:30 in the morning jumped through a closed window and fell 130 feet to the sidewalk below and died. there was no tension whatsoever of lsd until 1975 when a presidential commission uncovered that inadvertently and it was revealed in the pages of "the washington post." so again -- >> just amazing. thank you. i have to wrap it there just because we have so much breaking news today. >> sure thing. >> your book was fascinating reading. i should just add as well that mr. olsen the cia operative had told his family according to the lawsuit that he wanted to resign. he wanted to leave the cia. >> that is correct. >> he also told some of his colleagues according to lawsuits. we'll see what happens today. we'll have you back to see how this thing resolves. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> thank you very much, ashleigh. >> also in complete fairness to the cia of course we reached out

to them, to the cia. that is not an easy thing to do but dhe respond. and they gave us this comment. they said this. without commenting on this specific legal matter, cia activities related to mk-ultra have been thoroughly investigated over the years, and the agency cooperated with each of those investigations. mk-ultra was investigated in 1975 by the rockefeller commission and the church committee and in 1977 by the senate select committee on intelligence and the senate subcommittee on health and scientific research. in addition, tens of thousands of pages related to the program have been declassified and released to the public. our thanks to jennifer youngblood from the cia for getting us that formal comment from the cia. it remains to be seen how many more comments they may have to make if this thing gets into court.

i started gymnastics when i was 9 years old and i was watching the 1984 olympics and it spoke to me as if it was like broadcasted directly to me. i immediately took the cushions off the couch and started flipping around. >> joseph putignano's start into gymnastics got serious after that. at the olympic training center just two years later he realized he had a natural gift. but his need to perform perfectly took over his life. >> for me it kind of became a darkness that i have to be perfect. >> reporter: that's where his downward spiral began. >> i had my first drink and all that desire for me to be perfect and to be the best was just washed away in a moment.

>> reporter: within months things got worse. >> i was drinking and using prescription drugs and a lot of cocaine. and it was that thing where i came to a crossroads where it was like i can't use and perform, so something's gotsome. one of the worst moments of my entire life, which i'll never forget, is actually calling the coach up and quitting. because it's like you're giving back your gift. >> reporter: alcohol, pills, and cocaine led joe to heroin. in 2007 after several failed stints in rehab and two frightening overdoses, recovery stuck. >> i'm 27-year-old and the more sobriety i maintained, the more this light, i'll call it, i don't know what else to say,

pulled me in a better direction. >> joe honed his body and his mind and started to work on broadway as a dancer but it was a chance meeting with a producer that changed his life forever. >> he saw something in me that was inspiring and brought hope. >> today, three years after that chance encounter, five years of sobriety, joe is starring as the crystal man in the cirque cirque de soleil's show. >> it's the darkest of man carrying the brightest of light. now i get to come down here and shine. >> reporter: he says his addiction will never disappear. he's now living a life he thought he lost forever. dr. sanjay gupta reporting. so don't wait. call now. whatever your health coverage needs, unitedhealthcare can help you find the right plan. open enrollment to choose your medicare coverage begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so now is the best time to review your options

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then the nor'easter that added insult to injury. and now the tables are turning as the west coast is going to be bracing for a monster weather pattern that has several states locked on to it's radar for a five-day assault. chad myers is watching the rain, wind, and the snow that is coming. they are really going to get it. how bad is it expected to be? >> there could be 20 inches of rain in spots. you put that up in the mountains and you're talking ten feet of snow and all of a sudden you have mudslides, snow slides, avalanches. it could be an ugly mess. you say a couple of days. i see four separate storms over the next 16 days hitting the same period. one storm out in the pacific, headed through san francisco and up to truckee. you don't go anywhere without the chains in your car. they are going to be chaining everything up and down there through the i-80 pass. there's the flood threat in the green because it's not going to

be snowing there. there could be a foot of rain before it finally stops. we are seeing all of this purple area. that's only in the next 72 to 120 hours. it just keeps raining. it just keeps going. it just keeps going for the next week and a half. moisture is not going to stop. it's going to come on shore one storm after the next. 20 to 30 feet of waves. from oregon down to the california coast. we're talking about the sierra but it will affect all the way from british columbia down to south of san francisco. one storm after the other. those are the huge waves. high surf warnings along the coast. you need to stay out of the water and all surfers are going to want to be in the water. a big, big event for the west. we haven't talked about this big of an event, i don't think, probably for years for the west coast, ashleigh.

>> for yearses? >> yes. >> you said 20 inches of rain, ten feet of snow. that usually translates into landslides for people of california. >> no doubt about it. and this heavy rain isn't through all of the burn areas but there are burn areas affected. what i mean by that, if you're on the east coast, once you have a fire in the higher elevations, from sierra up and down from california to washington, you don't have the roots of the plant trying to hold that dirt in and the dirt just want to move and it's a one-two punch. you've lost all of the vegetation around your house and now you're going to lose all of the dirt around your house because there's nothing to hold that dirt in place. >> can you give me 30 seconds to tell me what is going on to the left of the screen? it looks like a huge hurricane. what is it exactly? >> people want to put this in perspective as the pineapple express but right now it's not the pineapple express. you see a spin there, a spin

there, one coming on shore here and another out west. yes, there are four spins out there waiting to be, one right after another like planes lined up to laguardia. >> i'm so sorry to hear that because we've been through it here and our hearts go out to the people on the west coast. thank you, everyone, for watching newsroom with me, newsroom international starts right after this break. i love 'em even more. i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that's 1% back on... [ toy robot sounds ] 2% on pumpkin pie. and apple. 3% back on 4 trips to the airport. it's as easy as... -[ man ] 1... -[ woman ] 2... [ woman ] 3. [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you. of green giant vegetables it's easy to eat like a giant... ♪ and feel like a green giant.

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